KALAMAZOO, MI — Once the dust settles on all the moves planned among athletic conferences over the next two years, conference realignment in the Kalamazoo area will come to a rest, at least temporarily.

However, with six Kalamazoo Valley Association schools joining the Southwestern Athletic Conference and the remaining two joining the Berrien-Cass-St. Joseph Athletic Conference, it feels as if it’s only a matter of time before new problems arise.

Kalamazoo Christian athletic director Jerry Weesies said even the Comets, who will join arguably the most stable conference in the area -- the Southwestern Athletic Conference – will have to be ready to adapt to changes in the area.

“Three years ago, everybody in the KVA said they were happy and they weren’t going anywhere,” Weesies said. “We all felt the same, but that changed in the matter of a year and a half.

“No league is set in stone. You may think you are, but things change so rapidly.”

How long will it take for one school to long for greener pastures elsewhere?

How long until one school’s community decides it no longer wants to drive two hours away on a Tuesday night in the middle of the winter only to have their students return home at 2 a.m. on a school night?

Misner raises a point and a question worth asking: Is this the best possible solution for the Kalamazoo area?

Is a never-ending cycle of switching conferences to adjust to the consistently fluid challenges the answer?

Weesies said one way to limit the constant realignment in the area would be to allow every team to reach the playoffs.

Misner, Ansel and Gull Lake athletic director Marc Throop suggested a similar result could be achieved if the MHSAA stepped in and dictated the football schedules, but both solutions seem unrealistic and unlikely to occur.

So what is the answer?

Mega-conference

A regional mega conference organizing schools by enrollment and location is the best possible solution, and one that is working in other areas of the state.

“If I was king of the jungle, I would have every school in our region in one conference and try to separate us out by location and size of school,” Throop said. “It may not be perfect, but what we’re doing right now certainly isn’t best.”

Misner echoed Throop’s thoughts, saying “If you look at the area, it would take a bit of effort, but I don’t think it’s going to be too long before we’re looking at a mega conference.”

The mega conference wouldn’t be perfect – logistics would be complicated -- but it would allow schools to adapt without a major ripple effect impacting other schools.

For a good example of this, schools in the Kalamazoo area need only to look north to the Grand Rapids area, which is home to the Ottawa-Kent Conference.

The conference is comprised of 48 teams from seven counties divided into six divisions. Jim Haskins, commissioner of the Ottawa-Kent Conference, said the league has been successful in achieving its goals.

“The whole essence of the OK conference is to set up an athletic conference where we have good competition levels, academic competition on some levels, comparable by size,” Haskins said. “Being a part of the conference, you get all kinds of competition levels and you have more opportunity to play teams in different divisions.”

Schools of all different enrollments are split into divisions with nearby schools of similar size. Haskins said the conference looks at major realignment changes every four years and addresses minor realignment changes every two years, in case a school experiences a drastic change in enrollment.

If schools in the Kalamazoo area were a part of a mega conference that followed a similar structure, the opportunity to change divisions would be available and realignment wouldn’t come at the cost of switching to another conference, or the disappearance of a historical conference such as the KVA.

“In a perfect world, we’d have everyone in our area and all of these different conferences be a part of a mega league in a sense,” Throop said.

A mega conference would also address some of the scheduling challenges schools across the area are facing. Schools would have a portion of their schedule filled with divisional opponents, but a plethora of schools would be available for non-league games.

It would also ensure schools would have opponents in all sports, even if some schools in the conference didn’t offer that specific sport. Haskins said co-op teams are common in the Ottawa-Kent Conference.

“Conferences are expanding trying to solidify their position,” Misner said. “There are definitely problems with Ottawa-Kent Conference, but in that conference, you’ve pretty much solidified you have someone to play.”

As always with starting something new, bumps and bruises would come along with the formation of a mega conference.

It may not be a perfect fit for the Kalamazoo area, but with the landscape of high school athletics constantly changing, it is an attractive solution.